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Hydraulic fracturing blasts at least 29 carcinogens and other hazardous chemicals deep into the earth to break up shale formations and get at oil and natural gas, says a new report released yesterday by House Democrats. Known as fracking, the industry used 780 million gallons of drilling fluids between 2005 and 2009, reports the Wall Street Journal. Ingredients ranged from the dangerous to the mundane, including citric acid, salt, coffee grounds, and walnut shells. "It is deeply disturbing to discover the content and quantity of toxic chemicals, like benzene and lead, being injected into the ground without the knowledge of the communities whose health could be affected," says Colorado Rep. Diana DeGette.

The petroleum industry and government regulators have been at odds over revealing the chemicals involved in fracking, with the industry claiming that the information is proprietary. "[T]he only way that'd be relevant in a public-health context is if those materials were somehow finding their way into potable water supplies underground," says an industry spokesman, adding "they aren't, don't, and according to regulators, never have." Click for more on fracking. (Read more hydraulic fracturing stories.)

>Natural gas has a lot of advantages as a fuel Let's bust this natural gas myth. The industry is riding on arrogance coming from decades of good will from phony PR. We've bought into the dangerous falsehood of “gas is clean energy”, from growing up on TV commercials with that pretty blue flame. (Commercials we are forced to pay for when we pay the gas bill!) On combustion, gas is twice as CO2 polluting as brown coal by weight. Like coal, it is nonrenewable. In fact, shale gas depletes rapidly, while discouraging investment in renewable energy. Getting gas out and to your door is one of the dirtiest, deadliest and most toxic mining procedures invented since mercury-enhanced gold mining. Oil and gas emissions from fracking sites now outweigh traffic pollution in Fort Worth, Texas. Oh, and there's the "save energy and buy less of our product" myth, and "we help you pay your gas bill even if you make 40K a year" billboards.

KeepItSimple

Apr 18, 2011 12:22 PM CDT

>One of the very first things the oil industry does is set what is called "surface casing" which is placed specifically to isolate freshwater zones “BP engineers evaluate various factors for each well to determine the most appropriate casing strategy,” --Deepwater Horizon spokesperson “The Love Canal has an impermeable thick liner.” --Hooker Chemical Company and government officials, late 70s